W.V. mayor's lack of remorse is big problem

I completely understand where West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder was coming from when he turned himself into Richard Burwash and wrote all those positive news articles that reflected so favorably on himself, his political views and his community.

Who doesn't want to write his own press releases, particularly when it looks like it's somebody else who is piling on the praise?

What I don't understand is how he could have ever thought it was OK to do it.

Or has fraud, lying, cheating, deception, bearing false witness, identity theft, conflict of interest, insider trading, plagiarizing, improperly influencing elections and impersonating a journalist suddenly become de rigeuer?

Winder pulled off the ultimate political spin. He quoted himself. He was his own source. Other politicians could only look on in awe.

When most journalists go bad it's the opposite. They make up their sources. Winder made up the reporter.

He didn't like the way his city was being covered by local media so he invented a disguise and assigned himself the beat.

To make it believable, he stole a photograph off the Internet of a California tennis pro named Peter Burwash, set up a Facebook page and created an email account and fictitious address for Richard Burwash.

Say hello to his imaginary friend.

He submitted one story that was Mike Winder's point of view, originally written by his sister and published on her blog, and then sent to the newspaper with a Richard Burwash byline. I'm not exactly sure of all the charges on that one, but I think he might have managed to become the first reporter in history to be guilty of plagiarizing himself.

When he stopped sending his stories, he said it was because he became aware that the Deseret News had a policy against using assumed names, neglecting to explain why, if he previously thought pseudonyms were acceptable, he went through all the machinations to make Burwash look completely real in the first place.

He also failed to explain why it was ever acceptable to influence bond votes, elections and public opinion on issues involving city commerce with his non-transparent articles.